Receptor Basics

[jameswhiteman]

Hi all

I'm about to purchase a Receptor PRO and just want something clarified as regards its basic operation, (this may be a very obvious question, but I'm new to the world of plug-ins).
Will the unit allow me to, in a live situation, quickly call up sounds from , for example, NI B4II, East West Colossus, and Synthogy Ivory as quickly and easily as I would via a hardware sound module. How this would actually be done in practise I can learn, but is the Receptor designed for this kind of operation?

Many thanks indeed
James

[c3boy]

Quickest way for live use is preloading your sounds to memory and using the snapshot feature you can disable the plugs you don't need for that particular song etc. Whether or not you could get what you wanted into 2GB is debatable. Snapshot is the only way to call up sounds almost instantaneously by having them pre loaded into memory. Otherwise it's a case of loading a patch up and waiting (especially if it's sample intensive)

Personally, if i was on the look out for another receptor, i'd buy a cheap rev b with 2gb and not bother with a more expensive PRO. Things won't get significantly better for live performance until the memory capacity is increased from 2GB to 3 or 4GB IMO.

[ADino]

I have to agree w/c3boy. I currently dont own a Receptor, have been racking my brain on this decision. Memory is crucial for plugs. I thought the new Pro would have real Pro upgrade, especially in the memory area. But when I think of what I could do w/a Rec, I almost need 1. Into the Mac for all plugs when recording should lessen cpu load quite a bit, playing live, I could actually use Ivory. Although Ive heard that unless your running a stereo system, its of little use. I understand that a lot of artists are using the Rec/Ivory combo, so is everyone running this plug in stereo? Any feedback regarding this subject is greatly apptd. Thks, A.

[jameswhiteman]

Hi again

If I were to use the 'Multi' function(?) to save the sounds/setup for each song - how long would it take to load before each song? I know this will be very dependant upon the type of plug in, but assuming a piano and hammond plug-in.

Many thanks again.

[c3boy]

I used to use this multi before each song, but because im using more sample libraries these days (Scarbee GPO etc) it takes too long and makes an awkward pause in the live set. There's only so much the singer can bull**** to buy me load up time lol. Having said that, if your using plugs like B4, you will be okay. Piano is a different story, I think everyone using Receptor uses piano (acoustic) sounds that are sample based, which means long load up time. Everyone is hoping on the arrival of 'TruePiano' which is a vsti plug and modelled. It sounds great and is only a few MB compared to the 40GB library I had to load over umpteen DVD's for Ivory.

Let's all hope TruePiano can be released for Receptor!

If you can squeeze all the sounds you need for a gig into a snapshot multi, then this is what I do. The only snag, is that currently you can't load sounds or fx up within a plugin once in snapshot mode. There are a few you can I think with midi trickery, but you basically need to pick the sound in your plug and instantiate it again if you want another preset from that particular plug. I think and hope it may be one of the updates with 1.6OS to resolve that issue.

There are much more experienced Receptor users on here than me so feel free for the other guys to chip in and correct me on what I have said. But Im pretty sure everything I have said is correct!

FWIW I have a Rev B and have never maxed out my CPU on live gigs. This is the reason that I have backed away from the PRO and REV C and will wait until Receptor supports higher memory capacity to enable snapshots with far more sample intensive plugs.

[thesoundsmith]

My live rig uses multis, because I need to have preset change and multiple real-time controllers operational. I am running Colossus Steinway piano (two instances) the Colossus acoustic bass and 60-player string pizz, B4ii, Mr. Ray 2.2 or NI Elektril Piano, sfz with 8 soundfonts and Plugsound Free. All patch changes occur instantly, or nearly so. Instrument change is done by changing transmit midi channel from the lower keyboard, and patch changes on the upper keyboard. There are some limits to what I can do, or do quickly, but generally i have a ton of great sounds availablel in a matter of a second or three. Study your needs, how you play, and the configuration options carefully and you'll find what's best for you. This is a VERY flexible device, and you can use it in a number of useful ways.

[lejoix]

hey,

I have simillar concerns. I want to buy receptor to be able to play live vst instruments (I am sure a good laptop is better than this setup, but this is better os software and better organizer than any other product on pc). Okay so the concern is: Let's say if I'm using only 4 instruments (absynth, fm8 and two more), loaded in the mixer. i am playing the song and when I advance to the next song I don't need to change the instruments, but I need to change some patches in the instruments and some mutings and settings in the mixer section, so to speak to go to another preset. Will this happen instantly when I press the program change button ? And another question would be: Can you save let's say a "state" in receptor name it "preset 1" save another different "state", "preset 2" and change between them instantly ? (the setup would be the same instruments but different patches inside and different mixer and effects settings)

thank you

[gizmostatic]

I'd really like to see a comprehensive explanation of 'snapshots' and how they work on Receptor .. the manual only mentions it on page 28 like so:

You can think of Multi patches as "snapshots" of your entire Receptor mixer, which makes them quite useful for creating big "stacked" sounds that combine multiple synthesizers, or for MIDI sequencing, where each instrument channel is controlled by a different MIDI channel.

that is the only reference to the word 'snapshot' when I search the pdf manual, which seems odd to me, since among the veteran users around here, snapshots are part of the vocabulary, and I wouldn't have even known about them if not for reading posts here and seeing the icon in the graphical UI and wondering 'whats this?'. I feel like I'm missing something here.

Has this feature already been discussed on these boards? and if so, can someone post a link to it, and even better, make it a sticky post? Or maybe start a new post with some snapshot basics?

[Ben [KVR]]

The manual only covers up to v1.2. Snapshots are covered in the v1.5 release notes:

http://www.museresearch.com/support.php?r=manuals

[gizmostatic]

The manual only covers up to v1.2. Snapshots are covered in the v1.5 release notes:

http://www.museresearch.com/support.php?r=manuals

awesome, thanks! knew i was overlooking something obvious ..